Lisztomania
by aogaku
Summary: Adrianne has to remember what it's like to be a normal person. Who better to teach her than someone who's already figured it out?
1. Chapter 1

" _And it was all alright_

 _Cause you_

 _We're there!"_

Adri's chest heaved, and she let her mic drop to her side while she caught her breathe and the crowd went wild.

"Thank you so much for coming out tonight guys!" They roared in response.

"You've made the last concert of this tour so memorable; and although I know it's gonna be so relieving to be off the road finally, I'm gonna miss performing to such amazing crowds every night." Another wave of sound rolled towards her.

"So make some noise for the last song of the tour!"

Adri woke up well past noon. She didn't even have to check the clock because she always woke up past noon after concerts. The only difference was that this time she was waking up in her own bed. The tour had ended last night in her hometown of Good Ol' Gotham and her parents had hightailed her home.

 _Good Lord_. She hadn't been home in months. She had missed home but she hadn't really known what she missed.

She had missed her big blanket and her stuffed bear.

She had missed the string of photos she had strung up on the wall.

She had missed her bookshelf, full of books and school work she had to catch up on.

 _Ugh._ School work. Adri had forgotten. She promised her parents that after spending all of middle school and half of highschool being homeschooled she would go to a real school and make real friends and have real teachers.

See, Adri rose to stardom in middle school and had to start being homeschooled because she simply didn't have the time to go to school everyday or adhere to its strict schedule. This also meant the only friends she had anymore were semi-snooty fellow child celebrities and adults in the music industry. Her parents thought going to Gotham Academy would fix this, but Adri wasn't so sure.

She had already planned it all out.

This was her Junior year so she could take it slow and have another album out by the end of her Senior year, do a tour that summer, and still be ready for college in the fall.

The only problem was getting her parents on board. She had only heard little whispers between them about this and that but she was getting the feeling they wanted her to drop the whole celebrity thing.

Which… wasn't an option.

Performing her heart out on that stage was her calling. She didn't know if she could just stop.

 _Knock knock knock._ Her door creaked open and her mom came in to sit down on the side of her bed.

"Well, you look tired." She commented

"I am." Adri rubbed her eyes, trying to wake up. Her mother obviously wanted to talk about something.

"I'm gonna cut to the chase. I think you should start school tomorrow." She burst. "I know we were planning on going back Monday, but if you go tomorrow then you only have to spend one day there to get acclimated, have the weekend to get your bearings, and then you can go in ready for anything on Monday!" She ended her spiel with a heave of her chest, catching her breathe. "Also I already bought your uniform~" She grinned.

Adri wanted to say no. In fact, an abhorrent, " _Hell to the no,"_ was on the tip of her tongue. However, it was clear her mom wanted this and thought it was a fantastic idea. So Adri agreed. After all, it was only one day, what could go wrong?

It looked like everything could go wrong. The second she stepped out the car she was getting stares. Luckily, it was just a parent in the drop off area whose kid had just left the car, so they had no one to tell.

So she pulled up her hood and strode off to homeroom. No one spared her a second glance and she sighed with relief. Maybe this wasn't going to be as horrible as she thought it would be.

Yeah, that changed when a passing teacher yanked her hood off with a snippy, "No hats or hoods in school, Ms. Bachman."

"Hey, did she say Bachman?"

"As in Adrianne Bachman?"

"OH MY GOD, SHE'S HERE."

"Adrianne Bachman is here?

"We have to get her autograph!"

She could have sworn she saw someone faint as she gave a small wave to the crowd growing around her. A wave of reluctancy washed over her and she put on a fake smile.

The next 10 minutes consisted of her signing anything and everything people could get their hands on and taking pictures with so many people. So much so that by the time the crowd quieted down and was now just invading her personal space, she asked if someone would show her to her Chemistry class so she wouldn't be late.

Of course, an entire swarm of people walked her out of the crowd and to the classroom. It was good luck too since the bell rang the second she stepped through the door.

"Ahh Ms. Bachman, how nice of you and your posse to show."

 _Oh no._

This was the same teacher that had pulled down her hood in the middle of the hall and caused her to get mobbed. Adri dug her nails into her palm and gritted her teeth as she held her tongue. The things she wanted to say to this woman. She probably thought she deserved to get mobbed.

"Have a seat in the back next to Mr. Wayne." She drawled. "Very good luck, considering he didn't have a lab partner for the first two weeks of school."

Adri felt a sassy retort rise to her lips but she bit her tongue, sliding into the seat next to what's-his-name.

The woman started addressing the class about a quiz coming up next week and talking about polyatomic ions. The girl sighed with relief, she had already learned this topic with the pyrotechnics guy on tour. Leaning back in her chair, she took a peek at the guy beside her before deciding to introduce herself.

"I'm Adrianne, by the way." She whispered, holding out a hand for him to shake. "Adri for short."

A look of slight disgust passed his face. "Damian." He left her hand hanging in the air.

Adri ended up surviving the first half of the day. But now it was lunch. And that was a whole different ball game. So instead of following the flow of students walking towards the cafeteria, the girl broke away and left what she understood was the South Building.

A light rain was falling, but it wasn't enough to get her wet, so she dawdled outside for a while, trying to figure out where to go.

"I guess I could just wander around and try to get to know my way around…" The girl wondered out loud to herself. She ended up digging her lunch out of her backpack and chewing on an apple while wandering, not really caring where she ended up.

Wandering legs led to a wandering mind and Adri wondered if this thing - _school-_ would work out. She hadn't been especially popular when she was a kid in elementary school and almost everyone she had talked to today had that twinkle in their eye, the same one that was in everyone's eyes at meet-and-greets. Would that go away? Would these people ever view her as just one of them?

Sometimes Adri just felt as if she could never stop attracting attention.

Lunch came and went. Her AP U.S. History class graced her with an amazing teacher. And now she had three music classes back to back for the rest of the day.

First was chorus. Everyone freaked out that a popstar would be singing with them, but the teacher, Mrs. Layton, quieted them down. Adri took a seat in the Soprano 2 section and as they sang she asked a few people about how to pronounce some words, and sightread through most of the music. Adri had missed this. Performing for thousands of people with her brightest sounding voice was exhilarating but nothing was as calming or relaxing as singing in a choir.

Chorus ended and Band came next. Specifically Jazz Band. Needless to say, Adri was nearly exploding with excitement. The band kids weren't nearly as excited as the choir kids had been, but she didn't really have time to say hello to anyone since the band director, Mr. Green, rushed to set her up on a piano as soon as she stepped into the room. She played along with the band and was giddy with happiness at how wonderful everyone sounded. She could get used to school if she got to end every day like this

Orchestra was… different. The violin was definitely her strongest instrument. It was the one she had played for the longest, and the one she felt most comfortable with. Maybe she expected too much, but Adri had assumed coming into the classroom that this ensemble would be as good (if not, hopefully better) as the other two she had just played with. She was disappointed. First of all, the Orchestra room was pushed back into a small corner of the school and Adri almost didn't make it to class on time because of how long it took her to find it. Secondly, the director, Mr. McGinley, didn't even recognize her as a new student until she spelled it out for him. He just seemed like a very disorganized and, for lack of a better word, stupid man. Third, they sounded atrocious. Adri didn't know how else to put it.

"I'm going to put you in second chair, Miss Bachman, I trust that you're a wonderful violinist." He wasn't even going to audition her? And what was up with second chair, if anything she deserved first-

 _Oh. That's why._

Sitting in first chair was none other than her lab partner for Chem. Danny was it? No… he looks pretentious. He probably goes by Daniel.

Adri sat down in her designated chair and quietly warmed up her fingers.

Daniel didn't say a word to her until they played through their first piece.

"You messed up the triplet run in the first system of the second page." He muttered.

Adri almost snapped something back but she bit her tongue and leaned back. "Oh whoops, I forgot to raise the leading tone. Sorry this is my first time playing this piece."

This actually wasn't the first time she had played this piece. She used to play it with her old teacher as a warm up before she started homeschool and touring.

 _So then why did I mess up_? Adri asked herself. Mr. McGinley played the rest of the class away and the girl absentmindedly went through the motions, pondering on this oddity.

There was also the question of why she lied to Danny about her experience with the piece. She didn't have anything to prove to him.

She left school in kind of a daze, putting her headphones in and turning up the music. Maybe it was just the surrealness of going back to school that had shaken her up. Yeah. She'd chalk it up to that. Walking back to her car was an experience. People acted like excited dogs when they saw her, beaming at the sight of her, saying hello, asking her to hang out and all the like. With a small sigh, Adri just wished she didn't have to go back to scho-

"WATCH OUT!" A split second later something crashed into her and she was on the ground, head reeling from hitting the pavement.

Her headphones had fallen out, and she could tell that the world was quiet, but the pulsating beat inside her head was thundering around like a rocks in a washing machine.

"What the hell was that for?!" As her eyes focused on the thing -person- that had tackled her at breakneck speed, she realized that it was Mr. Bad Attitude himself.

He looked at her like she was stupid as he got up off her and dusted himself off. "You walked right in front of a car going 50."

Adri was speechless. Daniel offered her a hand to help her up. She took it and he pulled her back up to her feet with ease, but she swayed, the world doing barrel rolls. He caught her before she fell again but had a look of distaste on his face.

"You can't drive."

Adri felt like disagreeing, but she couldn't really focus at the moment so she let Daniel call the shots.

He led her over to the curb to sit down and fiddled with his phone, calling someone and lifting the phone up to his ear.

Meanwhile Adri was on the brink of an existential crisis. Daniel, the guy who had been standoffish and rude was helping her. Not the people who kept mobbing her every which way. Not the people vying to get a selfie with her. The person who almost ran her over didn't even stop to make sure she was ok! You would think people could care about her all the time, not just when they needed something from her.

"Are you crying?" Daniel said, with an undertone of, ' _Please stop, I don't want to deal with that.'_

Adri sniffled. "You're a good person, Daniel."

He raised an eyebrow. "My name is not Daniel."

Her jaw dropped in embarrassment. "Shit."

 **Hi people!**

 **So this is my first story in (literally) years.**

 **I originally started out writing Adri as someone who ended up with JASON. (Tbh he's my favorite, but Dami is more fun to write)**

 **She was a doctor and shit.**

 **But yeah, I scrapped that and ended up with this.**

 **Hope y'all like it.**

 **(Pray for me though cause Dami is hella hard to write.)**

 **-H**


	2. Chapter 2

Saturday was hectic. She woke up at 1 in the afternoon to a text from her manager telling her to meet her for a surprise photoshoot at 2, so she had to rush to eat breakfast, shower, and get across town. Then she had to sit in hair and makeup, answer questions for the article that was being done concurrently with the photoshoot for this magazine spread, and after that she had to laugh at the photographer's corny jokes that he made while trying to get her to look realistic (actually that part wasn't all that bad).

By the time they finished it was already dark out and Adri was on edge. She had parked nearly 5 blocks away, and normally that wouldn't be a problem, since she usually had a security team. But now she was off tour, living the normal life. Security guards didn't fit into that mold. Guess that meant she was walking alone.

So Adri kept a brisk pace while getting to her car, hand's in her pockets and thumb on her car's panic button. Adri wasn't stupid. She knew Gotham wasn't like the hundreds of other places she had been. Gotham took the cake when it came to homicides, muggings, rape, and crime in general.

Surprisingly, the girl managed to get to her car without trouble and had unlocked it when she felt something go whizzing past the back of her head. She whipped around, muscles tense, but she didn't see anything until she looked to the ground about 5 feet away from her and saw an oaf of a man on the ground and clearly knocked out. Looking around, she saw nothing, except for the shadow of a person on a rooftop.

Adri didn't want to linger any longer, so she jumped into her truck and drove away, trying not to run over the guy that had tried to get to her, but not really caring if she did.

 _That was close._

A shiver ran down her spine and she turned up the heat, driving home in silence and thoughts on her stroke of luck in being saved from whatever that man wanted to do to her.

Monday started off more relaxed. There weren't as many stares, not as many people saying hello, there wasn't even really a crowd surrounding her every step.

It was nice.

As she made her way to her Chemistry classroom, she thought about her lab partner and Friday afternoon. Damian's butler (he had a butler?) arrived about 5 minutes after he had called and the very old, very British man waved a pen light in front of her eyes, checked her for signs of a concussion, but eventually cleared her.

Adri had also managed to convince them that she really did feel fine and that she could drive home.

But now the weekend was gone and she was back in the school.

Chem came first. She wasn't exactly thrilled because she could tell the teacher hated her, but she'd have to make do. She almost ran into Damian, as they both reached the door at the same time and Adri gave him a bright smile, greeting him with a polite hello.

"Hello Adrianne. I take it no adverse symptoms from your head injury?" He inquired as they walked to their lab station.

"Nope." She grinned, popping the P, "My head's fine. Guess I've got a thick skull."

"I can tell."

It took her a second to get his little tongue-in-cheek joke.

"Hey!" Her jaw dropped at his light insult. "I do not have a thick headed." She pouted, with a frown forming on her face.

"Ok, Bonehead, you don't have a thick skull. I apologize." His words dripped with sarcasm.

"Fine, fine. What a comedian." She made a show of patronizingly clapping for him and rolling her eyes.

He frowned, but before he could think up another comeback, their teacher cleared her throat, getting the classes attention. They had a project due in three weeks that would be worth 20% of the quarter's grade. A smile tugged at Adri's lips. She was good at projects. Every song she wrote was a project. This would be a cake walk.

Mrs… _What was her name?_ Announced that they'd also be confined to their regular lab partners for the project. A few people started to complain, but Adri was actually fine with it. Damian might act tough, but he was an OK guy. Plus he seemed smart so she hopefully wouldn't have to pull his weight.

The rest of the day went by without trouble. Adri evened managed to get some small talk out of Damian during Orchestra. Granted, it was only complaining about his brother, but she didn't even know he had a brother so she took what she could get.

As she was leaving school her phone started buzzing and the girl frowned.

Her dad was calling her.

With a sigh, Adri swiped to answer and held the device up to her ear. "Hi, Dad." She un-enthusiastically greeted.

"Hello darling, just wanted to call to ask how your first day of school was. I know how excited you were to finally go back." His smooth voice crackled through the phone.

"My first day was actually Friday. Did Mom not tell you?" The frown grew bigger on her face.

"Ahh, no. I don't think your mother and I have talked since your last concert." He faltered.

"You're not even trying to make this better are you?" She accused.

"Darling, I assure you-"

Adri cut him off before he could finish. "Forget it, _Dad_ , call me again when you're actually interested in fixing our family instead of running away like a coward." She snarled, hanging up and getting into her car, slamming the door on her way in.

It was a couple days later when Adri and Damian made plans to start on the Chem project. They'd go to the library after school to start on research. Adri even suggested that since the library was only a couple blocks away, they should just walk. Forgetting that afterwards, she'd have to walk back to school to get her car.

Even so, after Orchestra, the two found themselves leaving the school doors together and walking at a leisurely place towards Gotham's public library.

"You know, I've noticed you don't have many friends, Dami." She commented, adding on the nickname at the end because she knew it'd annoy him.

" _Tt._ I have an adequate amount of friends. And don't call me that insufferable nickname. _Bonehead_." He ended with an emphasis on the nickname he gave her a couple classes ago.

Adri let it go. "Even so, you can always use more. So I think we should be friends." A smile tugged her lips up.

He stopped in the middle of the street, prompting several dirty looks from other pedestrians for disrupting foot traffic. "You want to be _friends_?" He said it as if it were a bad word.

She stopped and turned around to face him on the sidewalk. "Yes." She nodded.

"Would you care to give me a reason why?" He cocked his head to the side.

"Because you're the only person in the entire school who treats me like a human being instead of a celebrity. Now c'mon." She said, grabbing him by the arm and rejoining the rest of the people walking along the sidewalk.

"What do you mean, 'celebrity'?" He inquired.

Adri faltered. "Are you serious?"

He raised an eyebrow.

Her jaw almost dropped. "I'm a world famous popstar. "

Damian obviously didn't believe her. "Careful, Adrianne, your vanity is showing."

"No, I'm serious! That's why everybody at school mobbed me on my first day."

"Relax, Bonehead, I'm joking. I know who you are." He said, a smirk playing on his face.

Adri's disbelief deflated and she rolled her eyes. "Alright, Chuckles. They really should just name you comedian of the year."

"I'm going to be on the cover of Forbes next month, so they might as well add that on as well." He mentioned casually.

"Wait like the economics magazine?" Adri thought she had heard wrong.

He nodded.

The girl stared at him, feeling like she was missing something.

A look of understanding struck Damian. "I'm a billionaire." He said it like it was something normal. "Well, my father is a billionaire." He corrected, as if that made a difference. "I'm only a millionaire until he unfreezes the rest of my accounts when I turn eighteen."

"Wait."

" _Have a seat in the back next to Mr. Wayne."_ Her Chem teacher had said.

"You're _that_ Wayne? As in Wayne Enterprises?"

"You're just oblivious aren't you? How many other Waynes are there in Gotham?" Damian scoffed.

"Touche." Her face scrunched up in defeat.

"You know, for someone who only wants to be my friend because I don't treat you like royalty, you're acting awfully shocked at my financial status." He commented lightly.

"Well it's only because now it finally makes sense as to why you have a butler. I mean who has a butler anymore?" Adri giggled.

She would've walked right past the entrance to the library, too entranced in the conversation, if it had not been for Damian taking her by the elbow and pulling her through the door.

"Let's get started on that project, Adrianne."

 **DAMI AND ADRI HAVE CHEMISTRY TOGETHER HA**

 **Anyways, yeah they have a chem project together.**

 **Hope y'all enjoy this**

 **Also I don't know if I suck at writing Damian or not.**

 **If I do, don't tell me.**

 **Bye**

 **-H**


	3. Chapter 3

Adrianne wasn't positively sure, but she felt like something had clicked between her and Damian at the library. It's not like he was telling her his deepest darkest secrets, but he make jokes with her and smiled once in awhile.

She didn't know how to describe it other than that it was _nice._

Talking with him was simple and easy and thoughtless and genuine. Was this how real people, uncorrupted by showbusiness, acted? If so she couldn't wait to meet more.

Sure he looked like he didn't know what the word meant when she first suggested it on the sidewalk, but she liked to think that she could now consider Damian Wayne her friend, and he could consider her his.

It was their second afternoon working on the project and they had both hit a slump. It was only 5 o'clock and they needed to get at least 3 hours of work done. Damian was trying to work through it, but he seemed even more tired than her. Adri's eyes fluttered closed for a second and her head began to settle down onto her arms.

Her stomach let out a loud roar and the girl shot up in embarrassment. Damian looked flabbergasted at the revelation that such a loud sound could come from someone so small.

"I need food." Adri's tired voice said.

"Agreed."

"And coffee."

"Yes." They packed up their stuff rather quickly, deciding to find the closest place with coffee, which happened to be a Starbucks 2 blocks away. Adri got a venti macchiato and a sandwich and was pulling out her wallet when Damian tagged his order on with her and told her he was paying. And although that was awfully nice of him, it wasn't the surprising thing; his order included 50 million different specificities. Something about soy milk, 3 extra shots, and literally the largest cup they had.

They didn't stay, opting to go back to the library and get back to work. But as they left the coffee shop, Adri couldn't help but feel like someone was watching her. She checked behind her several times, effectively alerting Damian to her predicament, but she couldn't see anything. Must've just been the caffeine.

Adrianne had to ask Damian to walk her back to her car since she had left it at school. She wasn't stupid. She knew Gotham was a dangerous place for teenage girls. That didn't have to bring down her good mood though. Now that she thought about it, she didn't know if she was actually happy or if she was still on her sugar high.

A movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention as she was listening to Damian tell her about his eldest brother. He noticed immediately.

"What is it?" He had stopped along with her, peering into the dark alley that they were now facing.

"I thought I saw something." A loud clang sounded from the alley, making Adri jump. "There it is again!" A split second later something shot out towards them, leaping towards Damian.

It was just a cat.

To think Adri had been scared it was someone about to mug them. No, instead it was a small, underfed, white cat with a brown tail, paws, and ears. Damian was startled by its appearance, and the fact that its claws were digging through his jacket and into his arm, but was gentle in the way that he coaxed the animal into relaxing its hold on him.

The hair on the back of Adri's neck stood up and she felt something was off, but the sound of something clicking was what alerted her that something was _wrong_.

She turned around and her blood ran cold. Not five feet away a gun was in the hand of a scraggly looking man. Adri could faintly register that he was saying something, but the only thing running through her mind was, ' _DANGER DANGER DANGER'._

She tugged on Damian's sleeve. He was still paying attention to the cat, his back to the mugger.

"Damian…" Adri felt very small at the moment and it reflected in her voice.

"Hmm?" He turned to face her, the cat still in his arms. She pointed to the problem.

"What the fuck'er you idiots waitin' for?!" The mugger's words broke through Adri's stupor as he waved the firearm around. "Wallet! Purse! Jewelry! Watch!"

"Damian…" She choked out.

"Just do as he says, Adrianne." He was unreasonably calm, as he handed the cat to her and dug his wallet out of his pocket. He finally looked at the mugger, holding his wallet out. "This should be enough to satisfy you."

He stalked forward, with the gun swinging around by his side. "You think yer lil' wallet is enough? I said-" He moved to snatch the leather from Damian's hand, but the wallet dropped to the ground as his hand wrapped around the mugger's wrist and his foot slammed into the older man's chest, making him fly several feet away. The gun clattered to the ground and Damian stormed over.

"You know," He said. "If there's one thing I hate more than muggers," His free hand reeled back into a fist. "It's greedy muggers." Damian spat as he socked him an uppercut and knocked him out.

Adri was speechless. When she asked Damian to walk her to her car she figured he'd turn off thugs just because two people were much harder to subdue than one. She didn't predict him going all Mortal Kombat like that. Also there was his comment to the guy about muggers, as if he encountered this type of person all the time.

She attributed his calmness, familiarity, and ability to handle the situation down to him living in the city much longer than her. She guessed this was just what the norm was for natives. A thought ran through her mind about sending some donations to local charities, but it was pushed to the back of her mind since Damian was talking to her again.

"Are you done standing around, or should we wait for more cretins?" He raised an eyebrow, completely oblivious to why she was so dazed.

The thing that really broke her stupor was the writhing going on in her arms. She'd almost forgotten about the small animal she was holding.

"Achoo!" A loud sneeze lept out of Adri and she dropped the cat to the ground, sneezing once more in the process.

The feline rubbed up against her and she moved to pet it once more, but was again interrupted by the tell tale feeling of a sneeze coming on. She drew away from the cat.

"I think I'm allergic." She said with a frown.

Damian shrugged as he cradled his new friend. "Guess I'll just have to take her back with me then."

Adri felt a smile tugging at her lips as they strode out of the alley and back to their cars. For a person so intent on scaring off unwanted people, he sure warmed up to such a little cat quickly.

 **I forgot what I was going to say here. I know it was something witty though so :)**

 **Also just wanted to say that when Damian takes care of the mugger, he's restraining himself. Like... a lot. So when Adri is still like 'Whoa wth dude' he's weirded out cause he's like 'I was trying my best to not go vigilante what do you mean normal people don't do that?'**

 **But yeah, hope y'all had a nice time reading. Hit me up with those follows, favorites, and reviews. It's Christmas people.**

 **-H**


End file.
